#35. Why India Can’t Stop Spending $300 a Year on 15-Minute Groceries 💰

From quiet insights to billion-dollar behavior shifts, this edition is packed with founder fuel.

Jul 17, 2025

Hello, curious minds!

Welcome to the 35th edition of More Than Buzzwords—your weekly download of startup truths, market moves that actually matter, and insights that cut through the noise.

This week’s theme? Spotting what’s really changing before it becomes obvious.

Because here’s the thing: the biggest wins aren’t hiding in the shiny pitch decks or the loud LinkedIn takes. They’re buried in small signals: the frustration no one’s fixing, the “boring” market everyone thinks is done, the shift in behavior you only notice when you slow down.

So here’s what I’ve got for you this week:

🔹 Tweets That Cut Deep - Four bite-sized truths on sales, patience, branding, and why opportunity rarely announces itself.
🔹 Startup Spotlight - Plum is taking a $25M leap into preventive healthcare for India’s workforce. Read on to find out what’s driving this move and why it’s more than just an “add-on” to insurance.
🔹 The Big Idea - A podcast that explains why quick commerce works better in India than anywhere else, and what that teaches us about cultural fit, margins, and reimagining retail.

If you’re building, investing, or just trying to make sense of where the next wave is heading, this edition will give you the clarity (and maybe the nudge) you need.

So, let’s dive in. 👇

Tweets that cut deep

Here are four of the most valuable tweets from my X feed this week, saving you the scroll through all the noise.

1. The Secret Sauce of Great Sales 🧠

@BowTiedSalesGuy

Being good at sales =
1) how well you can reason (mind)
2) how well you can attune (emotion)

People buy emotionally and justify it intellectually… You need both.

So many people treat sales like a game of scripts and conversions. But this tweet flips the lens. It’s not about tactics, it’s about tuning in.

A good salesperson doesn’t just persuade the prospect; they perceive. They can read the room and the data. And they’re always selling – whether it's raising a round, hiring their first team member, or convincing the co-founder on a product pivot. The best ones know how to balance both heart and head in the room.

Think of a founder pitching a product in a crowded market. If they only talk about metrics: CAC, TAM, ARR, they might check the boxes, but they won’t spark belief. But if they also share a moment that sparked the idea, or the frustration they faced that others relate to, suddenly the pitch becomes human. That emotional insight, paired with a clear path to value, builds real trust.

That’s the real skill. People buy with emotion and then justify with logic. Sales isn’t a department. It’s a core skill every founder needs to sharpen.

2. Opportunities Whisper Before They Shout 👂

@jonbrosio

Opportunities don't announce themselves,
they whisper...

Listen for:

• Frustrations (experiences to improve)

• Market inefficiencies (gaps to fill)

• Emerging trends (waves to ride)

• Complaints (problems to solve)

With open eyes opportunity is everywhere

This is the founder's version of “stillness speaks.” The tweet highlights a truth that's often overlooked: most breakout startup ideas don’t come from grand moments. They come from a slow burn of observation.

If you’re waiting for the perfect idea, you don’t need to go 100x harder. You just need to slow down and start noticing what’s already around you.

That annoying glitch you run into every day? A whisper.
The product you wish existed? A whisper.
The hacks your team uses to get by? Definitely a whisper.

Opportunities rarely shout. The key is to get quiet enough to hear them. Not everything needs a pivot deck. Sometimes it starts with simply paying closer attention.

3. Traction Walks Before It Runs 🚶

@TheOvermanEthos

Met a millionaire through a mutual friend today. He sold his software company in January for $200M. Asked him for his advice for young entrepreneurs.

Never quit too early, he said.

It took them over 3 years to get their first paid user.

We love a “zero to 1M ARR in 12 months” story, but the reality? Most good things take way longer than your timeline, and they definitely test your patience at every milestone.

This tweet is a blunt reminder that traction isn’t always fast, but it can still be inevitable.

Hustle culture has wired us to expect success early, and in the most grandeur way.

Six months in, the metrics look sleepy, we question the idea. Twelve months in, we wonder whether the market even wants us. Two years in, our friends with “real jobs” are planning vacations abroad, and we’re still refreshing Stripe, hoping to break double digits. Most people quit by now.

But here’s what the tweet is whispering: slow doesn’t mean broken; slow often just means early. Sometimes, all that “halted success” means is: you’re not done yet. If it’s slow, it doesn’t mean it’s not working.

So if your graph looks like a flatline, remember it might be the quiet part before the curve. Keep shipping. Keep talking to users. Keep showing up. Momentum likes people who stick around.

4. Pay Now or Pay Later 🎯

@angelopprieto

Every dollar you avoid in branding. You’ll pay in discounts later. 100% guaranteed.

This tweet stings, because it’s true. When you skip branding early on and don’t build clear positioning, a strong story, or an identity, your product becomes just another line item. You’re just another face in an already crowded market.

And what do people do with line items? They compare prices.

But branding doesn’t just add gloss. It adds gravity.

Branding helps you anchor your value in the customer’s mind, so you don’t have to race to the bottom.

Think about how people talk about Apple versus a random Android phone with the same specs. Specs-wise, the Android phone might be better on paper. But Apple has anchored itself in our minds through design, trust, and cultural pull. You’re not just buying a phone; you’re buying status, simplicity, and belonging.

Even on a smaller scale, say you're building a skincare brand, branding is what lets you charge ₹999 for a product when others are selling at ₹399. It tells a story that justifies the price.

The earlier you start building that story, the less you’ll need to discount to convince.

These were my four favourite tweets from this week’s tweet-hunt. Which one did you find the most valuable? Drop it in the comments below!

Don’t gatekeep this wisdom. Share it with a friend who's on a mission to build boldly, grow intentionally, and stay sane while doing it.

Now, let’s shift the spotlight to a startup stepping into a space that truly needs disruption: healthcare.

Plum, the InsurTech startup known for simplifying employee insurance, is making a bold move with a new healthcare vertical aimed at making care more preventive and accessible for its growing user base. Why now? And what exactly is changing? Keep reading to find out.

Spotlight on a Startup: Plum’s INR 200 Cr Leap into Preventive Healthcare 🌟

Plum started out as an InsurTech startup helping India’s SMEs and startups offer simple, affordable employee insurance. In just five years, it has grown into a trusted health benefits partner for over 4,000 companies, including Zomato, Swiggy, WeWork, and smallcase, covering over 500,000 employees.

Now, Plum is making its boldest move yet. It is investing INR 200 Cr ($25M) to transform from an insurance-first company into a full-stack digital health platform. The goal is to make healthcare more preventive, personalised, and accessible at scale.

This new vertical, Plum Health, will build on the company’s telehealth service that already facilitated 100,000+ consultations in 2024. It introduces Plum Health Checkups, an at-home screening service that tracks over 200 biomarkers, uses AI to predict risks, and connects users with doctors for tailored interventions.

Think of it as moving employee healthcare from reactive to proactive by helping detect risks early and building healthier habits before chronic illnesses show up.

Also, the need is urgent. Chronic diseases in India now hit people nearly a decade earlier than in developed nations, often before age 40. Mental health is another growing challenge. You might be surprised to know that 20% of Plum’s telehealth consults last year were for mental health concerns.

Yet only one in five companies offer regular health checkups, and even then, fewer than four in ten employees actually use them. This fragmented approach quietly costs businesses up to 30 lost productivity days per employee every year.

Plum co-founder Abhishek Poddar sums it up:

“India’s workforce deserves better than fragmented, reactive healthcare. Our commitment is to deliver integrated, preventive, and personalised care at scale, supporting companies that see employee health as a strategic investment in growth.”

As per reports, the investment will go into hiring clinical and engineering talent, expanding the healthcare team five times, building stronger tech infrastructure, and scaling partnerships. Most of the funding will come from Plum’s own reserves and profits, signalling strong conviction in this long-term play.

Safe to say that Plum’s timing is smart. Because today, employers are increasingly seeking holistic health solutions, with over 60% of first-time insurance buyers on Plum’s platform also opting for preventive care benefits. At the same time, healthtech is booming: Amazon India launched diagnostics very recently, and PB Fintech is creating a healthcare arm backed by $218M.

By combining insurance, diagnostics, teleconsultations, and AI-driven health tracking, Plum aims to close the loop between coverage and care. If successful, it won’t just be an InsurTech startup anymore. It will be a workforce health ecosystem, shaping how Indian companies invest in employee well-being.

What do you think about this move? Share your thoughts with us.

🎧 Quick Commerce in India: Why It Works, Where It’s Headed, and What It Teaches Us

If you’ve ever wondered why quick commerce (Q-comm) in India has exploded so fast, or if it’s even sustainable, this podcast is a masterclass. “Q-Comm in India: Unit Economics, Market Insights, and Its Future” by The ASYMMETRIC brings together four sharp minds: Revant (Mosaic Wellness), Shantanu (Bombay Shaving Company), Chirag (GoKwik), and Rahul Garg (General Catalyst).

They decode the business model that went from non-existent to nearly 20% of India’s e-commerce market in just three years.

But here’s the kicker: the billion-dollar question isn’t whether quick commerce will take 20% or more of e-commerce. It’s whether it will eat into 20% of all retail. And after listening to Rahul Garg’s breakdown, you’ll see why that might not be far-fetched.

Rahul frames quick commerce as “version 4.0 of e-commerce,” one that tries to emulate offline shopping behavior: small, frequent purchases, bought within minutes of deciding. He explains how grocery, once untouched by online commerce, became the wedge category that unlocked mass adoption.

In India, groceries make up nearly two-thirds of all retail spend, but online penetration is still among the lowest globally. Add to that India’s small-ticket, high-frequency buying culture, and you realize why Q-comm found perfect format-market fit.

India’s high population density (with grocery stores in every corner) shaped this behavior, but quick commerce elevated it. Unlike a general store’s limited SKUs, these Q-comm platforms offer wider choices with the same 15–20 min turnaround, combining the trust of kiranas with a more modern, reliable, and curated experience, especially valuable for tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

There’s also a strong economic logic. India’s Average Order Value (AOV) per GDP per capita is among the highest in the world, while delivery cost as % of AOV is among the lowest.

No wonder even in its infancy, Indian Q-comm users already spend close to $300 annually, which is higher than markets where the model is older.

Rahul even compares DMart vs Q-Comm ROE: despite DMart’s legendary efficiency, it’s weighed down by physical asset ownership. Quick commerce, asset-light with 5% EBID margins, can still hit 38% ROE which is a paradigm shift for retail economics.

The podcast also highlights why big-box retail hasn’t had its moment in India. High average order values don’t align with India’s purchasing power, and lowering them breaks their economics. While some are experimenting with home delivery, the widespread cultural fit still isn’t there.

Beyond groceries, the team dives into what other categories can thrive in Q-comm. Fresh fruits and vegetables are crucial because they shape quality perception, but ensuring that quality demands deep vertical integration, even captive capacity with farmers.

Fashion could work if it nails the 3Cs – cost, convenience, and curation with hyper-curated SKUs and fast inventory turns. Rahul even paints a vision of “Try & Buy”, bringing the trial room home within 30 minutes.

And it doesn’t stop there. From quick health services (like at-home eye tests and instant prescription glasses) to new opportunities for logistics players, the conversation shows how Q-comm could reimagine more than just retail.

And then there’s the subtle but powerful reminder:

“You’re so deep inside the business, you forget the outside view, and how big this opportunity really is.”

This episode isn’t just about 15-minute deliveries. It’s about India’s unique cultural nuances, economic structure, and buying behavior that make quick commerce not only possible but potentially more profitable than in any other market.

So, whether you’re building in consumer, logistics, healthcare, or even fashion, this podcast is packed with insights on margins, market fit, and demand that might just spark your next big idea.

🎧 Tune in for a rare deep dive into the future of India’s most exciting retail revolution.